Tag: dietitian

I started my summer job yesterday. So far, go good, but I miss my kids. I moved 2 1/2 hours away from home for my job. The kids will be joining me in a couple weeks though, once they’re done school for the year.

Got a 13k run in on the weekend. My hip and IT band are still iffy. Definitely have to book in for some physio later this week, once I settle in.

Watched 7 soccer games this weekend. My son had 3; my daughter had 4.

My daughter’s the one in red.

Father and son, getting some snacks.

Met with my nutritionist Friday. It was a productive meeting. As usual, I took away some tips and got help putting together an action plan to get back to losing, rather than maintaining, weight. I have to say that it’s a lot easier to stay away from the snacks when I have the structure of a work day. It’s also a whole lot easier to stay properly hydrated when you can take breaks in drink water. At school, we typically spend 2-3 hours with one patient, so we don’t really have the chance to take water breaks.

That’s all I’ve got for tonight. Hope you’re having a good week so far.🙂

Share this:

I went for a 45 minute bike ride this morning – fairly easy pace with a few 5 minute intervals mixed in. It was really smoky here, which was strange. Apparently the smoke is from forest fires in British Columbia, which is a whole 2 provinces away! My throat was a little bit raw afterward, but my asthma didn’t act up, so I was happy.

I often head down to the river to bike, but today I headed out on the highway near our house. It happens to be the highway that leads to my hometown, which is about 175 km away. As I pedalled up a hill, it suddenly occurred to me that the bike leg of an Ironman is 180 km long – about the distance from where I live to my hometown. Hmm, that put my 45 minute bike ride into perspective!

Tomorrow morning I’ll be doing a 15k run. Looking forward to the shorter distance (yeah, I know that it’s still a pretty long run). I’m also trying Hammer Gel instead of the Gu I’ve been using. I’ve read in a couple of different places (sorry – don’t have links) that people find it a little easier on the stomach than Gu, so I guess we’ll see! In addition to that, I’m going to try a water/Gatorade mix instead of just water, since I had a few problems with cramping at the end of my long run last week.

I’m also going to change my pre-run breakfast, since I’ve been having some tummy troubles about an hour into my run. My dietitian suggested cutting back on fibre beforehand, so I’ll be trying graham wafers, yogurt, and Gatorade for breakfast instead of the toast I’ve had the past couple of weeks. We’ll if it helps!

What do you think about when biking/running/swimming/doing other cardio?

Share this:

Every time I write down the date, I am absolutely shocked that it’s the middle of August. This may be due, in part, to the miserable weather we’ve been having this summer (cool and wet), but probably also due to the fact that I go back to school in less than a week. I’m sad to say that I’m not looking forward to the start of the school year, as I have pretty much always done in the past. In fact, this year, I’m dreading it.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m really looking forward to seeing all of my classmates (there are 27 of us, so we’re a fairly close bunch), but the volume of work I’m expecting this year is frightening. I kind of want to throw up a little when I think about it. Officially our school day starts at 8:30am and ends at 5:00pm, with an hour for lunch. The reality, from what I’ve heard from upper years, is that we have to be there by 8:00am (at least) to set-up so that we’re ready to treat our patients, and then we will often have stay late to clean up afterward. On top of that, our lunch hour gets eaten up (no pun intended) by having to set up for our afternoon patients, and then we will often have lab work plus studying to do in the evenings.

We’re also putting our kids in activities this fall/winter. Both my son and daughter will be starting hockey this year. My 4 year old will only have a half hour or so on Saturday morning, but my 6 year old will likely have a more extensive schedule. Unfortunately we don’t have any idea what that schedule will be like at this point, because it doesn’t come out until after all of the kids register and get placed on teams. Huh? Doesn’t make me happy to not be able to plan ahead.

We’re also planning to put them both in one session of Canskate. They’ll both be skating at the same time, which is nice and one less hassle. The tricky part is that registration for Canskate is next week, while hockey registration isn’t until the following week. So, how do we decide what session to put our 6 year old in when we don’t know when hockey will be? So frustrated about this.

I also mustn’t forget that I start school on August 23rd, but my kids don’t start until September 7th. Luckily, my parents are awesome and taking the kids all next week, but we’re still finalizing childcare for the following week. I’m sure it’ll work out, though. My fingers are crossed.

In anticipation of the upcoming craziness, I’ve put a few meals away in the freezer. But what else am I going to do so that I maintain my sanity, you ask?

I’m going to set up four weeks worth of meal plans and shopping lists, to be rotated until Christmas.

My husband and I are going to finish organizing the office, because I have piles of stuff from last year still hanging around.

I’m going to keep working out, because it makes a huge difference in terms of my energy level and how stressed out I feel. Oh yeah, and there’s half marathon I’m doing next month, so I should probably stay on top of training.

After the office, I’ll be tackling our mudroom/laundry room, because it’s a huge mess in there and it’s time consuming to have to look for shoes, bags, and jackets every time we want to go out. I hope to hit Home Depot and find some locker-style units that will help manage the chaos.

A lot of the kids clothes are getting too small, or just worn out, so it’s time to go through those, too. And maybe order them some new dressers from Ikea, because the drawers on theirs are starting to fall apart.

It’s also time to buy the kids some new shoes and probably some cool-weather gear.

Hallowe’en costumes might be a good idea, too, because it’ll be here before you know it!

I picked up a “Happy & Healthy Meals” all-in-one pack from my dietitian. It’s a binder with great info on balanced, healthy eating and meal planning, plus it has sections for me to record my quick meal ideas, meals I make regularly, and new recipes I want to try. I want to fill those in this week, so that my meal planning is easier.

That’s probably more than enough. I guess we’ll see how much I accomplish from that list!

Also in the same post, she discusses her struggle? decision? to find her blogging voice and post about her interests, rather than writing about the “popular” topics. Something to think about, especially for us new bloggers.

Share this:

I realized today that I weigh less right now than I did when I got married, which is kind of cool, since I celebrated my 12th anniversary this year. Is it weird that I remember how much I weighed when I got married? I also remember how much I weighed at other points in my life, and thought it would be interesting to write them down and see how my weight has changed over the years.

125 lbs September 1993 – high school graduation (for some reason our school used to have the ceremony in September)

118 lbs May 1994 – I met my husband

135 lbs February 1997 – on vacation in Barbados

152 lbs May 1998 – I got married

171 lbs January 2001 – walked the Disney Marathon with Joints in Motion

180 lbs May 2009 – after gaining weight my first year of dental school

170 lbs September 2009 – at the start of my second year of Dentistry, when I first started working out with my trainer

168 lbs December 2009 – just before Christmas, when I started working with my nutritionist

At my first triathlon. I was pretty proud of myself - still am!

148 1/2 lbs August 11, 2010 – Sorry, I don’t have a picture from today, but to the left is one from a couple of months ago. I’ve lost another 5 lbs or so since then.

My target is 130 lbs, which is sort of arbitrary, but puts me into a so-called healthy weight range for my height (5’3″). I’m thinking it will take me another 18 weeks (1 lb per week) at least to get to this number, and I’m good with that. At least now I feel like I have the habits to get me there: healthy eating and working out regularly.

Do you remember your weight at any particular point in time? Do you remember your highest/lowest? Or do you avoid the scale and go by how you feel and how your clothes fit?

22k tomorrow afternoon. Wow, have I ever come a long way from running 2 minutes at a time!

Share this:

A very pretty kitchen, but not mine. I really like the cookbook holder!

As I said in my post yesterday, I started working with a nutritionist/dietitian back in December 2009. Since then, I’ve lost almost twenty pounds and have totally overhauled my diet. Keep in mind that I was also exercising regularly, with coaching from my trainer who helped keep my workouts fresh. Eating was a big part of my weight loss, but I can’t discount the value of working out.

Of course I am totally happy about the weight loss, because I look better, it’s easier to find clothes, and running is sure a lot easier. But I’m also really happy knowing that my diet is SO much better now than before, I’m WAY healthier, and I’m passing healthy habits onto my whole family.

What’s Changed?

I eat LOTS of veggies now. It’s a rare day that I don’t have at least four servings.

Most of the time we eat lean cuts of meat like chicken, pork tenderloin, and beef tenderloin, meaning less saturated fat and cholesterol making their way through our arteries.

There’s a lot more fish in our diet, meaning more omega-3’s. We average seafood probably once a week, which is much more than the once every two months we used to have it.

We eat out far less frequently, and make better choices about where and what we eat. Yes, I’ve turned into that girl who orders salad🙂

I know what a healthy diet should look like, thanks to my nutritionist. So, when unexpected circumstances arise, I can adapt my plan to whatever food is available (unless it’s all pizza, wings, and beer – that’s a tricky minefield to negotiate).

Healthy starches have found their way into my kitchen. It’s not just bread, potatoes, pasta, and rice. We’re talking barley, quinoa, sweet potatoes, and corn.

When I’m stressed out with school, I don’t turn to food for comfort anymore. Well, sometimes I find myself scrounging through the pantry, but not nearly as often as before. And studying with peanut butter M&Ms is a thing of the past.

So often people have said to me that they would like to lose weight, know what to do to get there, but just don’t do it. I thought I knew what healthy eating was before, but I think I was wrong. Sure, I had a very good sense of which foods were healthy and which weren’t, but I didn’t know how to fit healthy eating into my life and what each meal should look like. Now, I’m very aware of what should be on my plate every time I sit down to eat. I’m not going to say that I eat perfectly every day, because I still struggle with emotional eating and sometimes chocolate calls, but for the most part, I follow a really healthful diet.

I still meet with my dietitian on a regular basis (we met today, prompting this post). She answers specific questions I have about food and the emotional side of eating, makes suggestions on how I can improve my diet further, and helps keep me accountable for my food choices. Sometimes I won’t eat that piece of chocolate because I know I’ll be putting it in my food journal and she’ll read about it – haha!

In short, she’s been an invaluable source of support. Yes, I’ve had to pay for her services, but I’m sure the time has paid for itself just from eating out less. And really, I think I’m worth it.